I'm adding something that improves the mouse hit area.
Basically that would be the model's job, but I can't edit models, so I add it via actors.

So, Monsters will have an invisible sphere around them where you can place the mouse in to be able to highlight the monster.


^ New Mouse hit zones made visible. This is used for highlighting now instead of the unit's model.

So, highlighting and targeting should become easier... The majority of the improvement is for the spam clicks that some people are used to from D1 and maybe D2.
I've tweaked the final mouse hit modes some more. So the ones you can see here were only my first design for the units. For example the horned demon ones are bigger now.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Aug 12 2012, 11:46 pm by Ahli.

Uhmm, is it possible that with the implementation of SC2 1.5, i lost all my characters?

during the laoding screen, just before the Char. selection, i had a message saying something like: *User* had an outdated save file that has been updated to the current version...
i had some pretty good gears for all my char. and all 19-20s the last time i played. Is there a way to recover these char. with items?

(i clicked on the wrong button to edit my post. sorry for double post earlier XD)

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Aug 13 2012, 12:03 am by opujhum.

If it is gone now, no. I won't add tools to the game to create specific gear.

I've added another bank update with my last update due to bugs. Basically it was validating every item and rerolled items that weren't valid (to strong/weak due to bugs with crafting).

I don't know why it could have been deleted as I only save the bank after it... =/
In my tests it was working properly every time.
Seems like you were unlucky and hit the trigger execution limit during the bank updating process somehow. I added waits to check those, but it seems that the wait frequency was to low somewhere then. But the bank is only saved after the migration. So it shouldn't have killed your bank file, if the trigger would have stopped. But then the whole game initialization should have been canceled.
So... I didn't expect that to happen at all and I don't know the reason why it happened. It wasn't intended.
I will try to create a backup file, if that is possible, for every bank migration in future then.

I'm sorry for your loss. =(

Or did you play these chars on the arcade beta client? Then the heroes are in the bank file within your beta account folder.

yes, i was playing these char in the Beta Arcade only.

so you are saying that if i load the beta client i should be able to have access to those files? O_o
or how do i retrieve that folder? i mean, how do i know which folder it is. where would it be located?

But honestly, you lost me a little in your explanation. ( i got the essential)

Ok, to get the arcade bank file into the sc2 release installation:

1. Go to "C:\Users\*username*\Documents"
2. Enter your "StarCraft II Beta" folder
3. Search a "diablosaves" file.
4. Cut out that file
5. Go back to "C:\Users\*username*\Documents"
6. Enter your "StarCraft II" folder
7. Search for "diablosaves" file.
8. Paste it over that file (you can rename the file to make a backup in case you got some bigger progress there that you don't want to lose in case of this not working).
9. Start SC2, load my map and check, if that worked.

There is no guarantee that this will work as it was a different server, different usernames, etc...
I don't know which information are used to decrypt the signature. So it might not work and display your bank file as corrupted. Then you can delete it and start over.

uhmm, i think the fact that i'm using Mac OS to play SC2 might have been the cause of my issue. I know i played few times on my Windows Partition but i'm not sure.
i will try to log in Windows to locate the folder and i know that it might not work but it's still worth the try

(i tried locating the same kind of file on my Mac but no sucess)

TY

I don't know where the file is on a mac... it needs to be somewhere. just search and check where it was placed.
My bank is named "diablosaves". That shouldn't have changed.

But maybe it's on your windows OS, yes.

news:
- Added mouse hit zones to monsters and townsfolk to make clicking onto them easier.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Aug 13 2012, 1:06 am by Ahli.

news:
- fixed gamble costs.

Updated map to version 0.288 on NA.
Updated map to version 0.288 on EU.

I've made some small improvements that I didn't update, yet.

I'm currently experimenting with a smaller scaling in the game due to the max map size of 256 x 256.
I changed my dungeon generation code to work on a real as a base and halved the size of everything. Now I'm able to successfully generate dungeons on a 0.5x0.5 tile grid which is half of the size before.
However, I experience problems that I need to overcome:

- The biggest problem are the footprints. They are hardcoded to be applied onto a 1x1 grid and can't be scaled smaller. Internally a single 1x1 tile contains 8x8 smaller grids. So in theory it could be made possible to place smaller grids just fine. I guess there are some other internal limitations that would need to be overcome in case that would be changed in the engine.
Placing a unit with a footprint, it is forced onto that 1x1 grid. That means that I would need to place a lot of footprints onto my map in those 1x1 clusters depending on my own 4 tiles within the default 1x1 tile.
Footprints are important for vision blocking and units' pathfinding around objects. Else they just see through everything and try to push themselves through objects rather than walking around those.
Update: Vision blocking works only on a 1x1 scale. =/

- Also, the camera boundaries do not like a zoomed in game. I did not experiment with the current scale atm, but it's not pleasant to work with. SC2's camera is basically hardcoded to work properly with the default scaling. If you want to permanently zoom in the camera, you create unreachable areas around the camera boundaries as we can't change the camera object's size on the map atm. There might be problems with the size of the map drawn onto the minimap, too, when I try to "fix" it.

- The third problem are the pathfinding costs. They are integer based which are based on tiles. So they have a terrible resolution for low scaled maps. I wish I could use real values for that with special functions to call this method as I guess that it would take more CPU time to calculate.

It looks like that currently:




edit:
I stopped that attempt to scale everything due to footprints blocking vision on a 1x1 scale only. So I would have to reveal the whole dungeon to the player including all walls, rooms, doodads, monsters, ....

At least I've shown myself, that it is possible to some extend. If footprints and the camera supports this small scaling better, I could half the size of everything without problems.

- Another option would be trying to just use 4 areas with dungeon levels, but to change the area dynamically. But that would create problems with the terrain texture and explored terrain/dungeon as I can't recreate/store the revealed black fog.
- A third option would be to hope for Blizzard raising the map's terrain space limit above 256x256. That would allow me to add more areas.
- A fourth option would be to split my project into 2 maps (which I don't like).


edit:
Changelog for Update:
- Altered Town Portals' look slightly to avoid problems with the look in the fog of war.
- Added party window to be able to inspect other players' equipped items.
- Added a tooltip to the experience bar.
- Tweaked some text positions in the character window.
- Items that are offered in an unlimited quantity at some merchants can be bought with fast clicking again.
- Added icon for left mouse button in tooltips.
- Fixed a tiny problem with barrel explosions and damage to attacker.
- Fixed a tiny problem in a supporting function for the random dungeon generation.
- Swapped new Warrior's equipped weapon to the blunt weapon which is superior to swords in the first dungeon level.

Updated map to version 0.289 on NA.
Updated map to version 0.289 on EU.

edit:
news:
- Fixed quest log portrait to appear below other portraits.
- Fixed a problem with merchant's static inventory adding itself after buying it.
- Fixed a problem with merchant's static inventory and buying an item with a filled inventory.
- Fixed a problem with stash item pickups not updating the inventory screen.
- A Town Portal scroll will spawn near the entrance of dungeon level 2.
- Corrected the position of the party button on screen.
- Items' spell buttons in the spell menu have now the correct height, if no spell was learned.
- Fixed a problem with spell menu listing default attack buttons. SC2 engine doesn't seem to deliver the correct amount of items out of an inventory's unit group, if an item was just moved out of the inventory before requesting this group.
- Fixed a problem with the skill menu not counting scrolls that were just taken out of the stash.
- Fixed a problem with the dungeon unloading system not unloading dungeon levels 1 and 2, if they weren't ever entered.
- Fixed to fast disappearing horned demon corpse models.

Updated map to version 0.290 on NA.
Updated map to version 0.290 on EU.

edit:
I'm looking for EU players with the instant drop issue. Maybe I know a factor of that problem.

Post has been edited 5 time(s), last time on Sep 5 2012, 5:59 pm by Ahli.

Hi Ahli,
For the last week or so I am having the game taking too long to load and it takes like 10-15 seconds to recognize cursor movements to highlight a selection button like "New Character" or "Load Character" even when after a while it gets to the "Select your character to load" screen it takes too long to highlight the OK button and load Tristam.
Eventually a "Waiting for server" window with a surrender button will appear and will hang there until you click the surrender button.
- The above happens every time now
- I have not installed any new applications recently on my PC
- I am in the NA server
- I can play other custom maps or the regular SCII campaign or games with other users no problem

Any ideas welcome

Thanks in advance

You are on the American battle.net. There exists a problem that creates huge lags in some custom maps.
A mapper called Fockewulf told me that these problems are created by old trigger action versions. But updating everything is quite impossible to do manually.
Also, for a strange reason EU hasn't those problems.
So, I can't solve that problem. Blizzard needs to identify the problem.

It might help, if you post about that in their forums. You can toggle the FPS display with ctrl + alt + F.

Thx for the fast response.
Hopefully they will fix the issue somehow.
Congratultions on an awesome job anyway

AMAZING !!!! i 'am waiting the complete game !!

FYI, it seems to be working OK in NA now, maybe you did something or Blizzard did change/fix their trigger issues

Thx

I didn't do anything.

Ok, I've experienced a limit with complex data structures (like points, regions, strings, text) where the reference count to these data structures cannot exceed somewhere around 32k.
Blizz-Tenarsis explained me this problem and the limit which had the following error message: "Galaxy data table overflow. Probable infinite galaxy loop."

Also, I wasn't that lazy the last days. I've made some changes to the mouse UI and monsters, fixed King Leoric's not appearing mouse hit sphere, fixed the spheres for cloaking units like hiddens.
I added new monsters for caves, too: Balrog, Succubus, Lightning Demon.
I still need to add the knight and give the Balrog a spell.

edit:
Great news, I've reduced the initial loading time with the cave areas from 2 minutes to 1 minute. I've used an array instead of using units on the map.

edit:
Also, I'm reducing the amount of wall units in a cave level to the minimum required amount to improve FPS and loading time of these levels during play.

edit:
lava attempt:

Doesn't look good. :S
Diagonal lines appear only from one side to another... I could work around other problems (like placing rocks + invisible bridge to cross the lava river), but this seems unfortunate so far.
I can place footprints in the edges of the diagonal lines to disallow pathing there as I know when those spawn. But they only appear into one diagonal direction. o0

Post has been edited 4 time(s), last time on Sep 16 2012, 11:56 am by Ahli.

Lava rivers!

Made some progress...

^ lava rivers... B is for bridge

edit:
- Added Immolation Arrow skill. It's an arrow that spawns a small patch of fire for 3 seconds upon a wall hit or after an attempt to hit a monster.
- Fire enchanted monsters now spawn immolation fire on the ground after their death.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Oct 11 2012, 2:01 pm by Ahli.

You've done a lot of work on that map since I've left home! The game is still awesome: I had to force myself to stop at the Catacombs lvl2 because I had to go to bed.

A few things you might want to consider:
- In your map's overview in the arcade, you have a typo (an "a" instead of an "as").
- If you have read the reviews, you'll know that, but people are saying the spidermines and the SC portrait are kind of killing the atmosphere, and also that the combat system is a bit clunky and unintuitive. There are also complaints about the floor's texture being too repetitive (as in the actual sc2 terrain, I guess).
- When I had completed the Sign quest, I had to talk a few times to the guy, and had to listen to him talking for a while before I received the reward and got the quest completed.
- I don't know if it is intentional (it does look fairly and different), but walls' algorithmic-pattern for certain dead-ends/boundaries/corners of the Catacombs seem messed up.
- Gambling kind of loses its idea of "risk" when it comes to that point where you have a lot of money to spend: just buy a bunch of the mid-grade items until you hit the jackpot and you're fairly sure it was a profitable enterprise because of the too few (I think) number of bad items.
- I can see how the Blink's attacking sound (monster of the Catacombs) might irritate the players on the long-term.
- There should be more Champion-class monsters generated.
- Gotta fix that belt so that potions fall in place.
- The "selected item from inventory" system could probably see some improvements (though I don't know what exactly).
- Mercenaries! I liked them a lot because they could spare you from a heartbreaking sell of a good magical item that your hero won't use anymore.
- An item's name should appear red when the requirements are not met.
- Some times I mess with items on the ground with my inventory open to compare them. There is a problem when the items on the ground are situated on the far-right boundary of dungeons: the dialog hides them.
- You should try to rotate the current TP animation vertically, so that it looks even more like the original (D2, no idea for D1).

Also, I have found " Tuxlar's mornin' "!

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Oct 14 2012, 10:24 am by payne.

I played the map some weeks ago. Forgot all about it being from here. It was pretty boring with my 2 friends, though they're an impatient bunch. Maybe I'd find more enjoyment out of it alone. I think it's biggest issue is the control over your character. It doesn't feel like you have as much as you could. The controls and movements feel too RTS-y. Obvious why, but I'm sure there's something you could do to remedy this.

I can't do anything against the delay that exists (because that is caused the way starcraft & battle.net works). The current control scheme is as good as possible in SC2.
The fact that you can hold down the mouse button exists for convenience... You could try to click all the time and have a half a second delay until your unit starts reacting.
I already added things that help to improve the situation: you can retarget projectiles during its cast delay and shift + melee scans a bigger area.

So, I'm sure I cannot do anything to improve the situation.

Really the most prominent issue seems to be the size of the monsters selection 'hit-box'. I'm too used to it being pretty large in other similar games, I'd often click nearby them and not directly on them. I'm sure that'd be an easy thing to change, right?